Who runs a poll question like this?

“Should charter schools be required to provide meals and transportation to underprivileged students?”

The alleged results: 10% “yes” and 90% “no.”

Setting aside the utter meaninglessness of the results, who thinks to run a poll like this? Charter schools are public schools that are, by law, supposed to reflect the demographics of the communities in which they are located. How does a school pull that off (i.e. serve poor kids) when it doesn’t provide food or transportation?

While it’s clearly flawed, once can at least understand the argument made by some charters (i.e. that they’d like to provide these services but don’t get enough money to do it). But that argument is not what’s implied by the Pope Civitas “poll.” Its clear implcation is that it’s wrong for the state to even consider such a requirement.

The bottom line: Whether it’s for-profits, religious schools or the homeschoolers, the right’s gloves are coming off in the battle over public education. These people want to destroy the concept of racially and socially diverse public schools and, increasingly, they’re making no bones about it.